1. Field of the Invention
Various aspects of present invention relate to remote control devices used with a variety of home entertainment equipment and more particularly, with a plurality of types of media equipment produced by a corresponding plurality of manufacturers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In home entertainment systems, remote controls are commonly used to support user interaction with a piece of media equipment from a distance. Supporting such interaction, remote controls are typically hand held, portable devices configured with multiple predefined buttons. Typical functions performed by such predefined buttons include controlling television channel selection, audio and video settings, media storage and playback, and media equipment power. Specifically, the remote control responds to a user's button selection by wirelessly sending a corresponding control signal to a piece of media equipment using infrared or RF transmission. The receiving media equipment responds to the control signal by implementing the requested changes.
Televisions receive channels from service providers, either directly or indirectly, via cable, fiber and satellite set top box. In addition to televisions and set top boxes, many other types of media equipment are used to provide supplemental or alternate audio and video to televisions or other media equipment. Some types directly source locally accessed media, and others alternatively or in addition include television broadcast tuners for managing television channel selection and video and audio settings. Exemplary types of media equipment include DVD (Digital Video Disk) players, audio systems, PVR (Personal Video Recorder) systems, game consoles, camcorders, digital cameras, etc. Each of these media systems is controlled through direct interaction or via one or more remote controls.
Each home entertainment system installation usually comprises more than one piece of media equipment. For example, a home entertainment system might comprise two televisions, two set top boxes, a DVD player, an audio system and a PVR system. Each piece of media equipment usually has a separate dedicated remote control that has a plurality of pseudo-unique buttons and button layout. Understanding buttons of each dedicated remote control is difficult, tedious and often a practically impossible task.
Some remote controls exist that attempt to control multiple pieces of media equipment. These “non-dedicated” or “universal” remote controls employ various techniques to carry out such control. Some universal remotes are constructed to work with multiple types of media equipment produced by a single manufacturer. As long as the home entertainment system comprises media equipment of that manufacturer, the universal remote control work will prove adequate. However, if a different manufacturer's media equipment is added, the universal remote will not suffice.
Other universal remote controls exist that attempt to support media equipment of multiple manufacturers. One type of such universal remotes requires the user to reference a catalog of manufacturer's media equipment to identify a programming code that is entered into the universal remote to cause it to adapt to support such equipment. When further media equipment is added to the home entertainment system or a battery change-out is required, the user must re-reference the catalog to reprogram the universal remote. If the media equipment is not identified in the catalog or the catalog is lost, the universal remote will not provide adequate support and additional remote control units are needed. Also, because latest media equipment releases typically occur after the catalog and universal remote control are created, both the catalog and the universal remote control often fail to support future media equipment additions and modifications.
Another type of universal remote exists that attempts to overcome such problems by “learning” their operation from dedicated remote controls. For example, the user is required to aim the dedicated remote control at the universal remote control and press each button on the dedicated remote control followed by pressing a corresponding button on the universal remote such that the universal remote learns the wireless signaling to deliver with a user's future universal remote control button presses. This training process is very time consuming, has to be repeated for each piece of media equipment in the home installation, and may have to be repeated if battery power is lost. Also, if buttons exist on the dedicated remote control that are not on the universal, they may not be supported.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with various aspects of the present invention.